We finally got some rain this morning, maybe a couple inches. It is so dry that all the water was absorbed, just like a dry sponge soaked it up. I saw one rain puddle, all the rest of the water was used by the thirsty trees and plants. We could use a couple more inches in a couple days but are only supposed to get heat. We got in the first 500 bales of horse hay. Supposed to do another 500 this weekend. Went pretty quick with the elevators. Hay looks pretty nice so far, good and dry. I have been working on clearing fence again, weed whacking. Also got the drainage ditch cleaned out. We get Canary grass and Cattails that really grow well in the early summer. Ground is too wet to cut them out then, so I have to wait for late summer and dry times. I cut everything down to the dirt. DD raked all the trimmings out so water should have a clean run to drain off this fall. I have a feeling the fall rains will be strong, lots of water, so I want the ditch draining well, doing it's job quickly. We are at the bottom of the drain before it goes into the tube, so any backup fills my paddock and the neighbors front barnyard. Lake O'Dell we call it! I leave the cattails that are right in front of the tube going under the road to Lake O'Dell. Water pressure is like a huge hose, with all the backed up water pushing behind. Cattails soften the water exit flow, keep draining water from washing out the whole side of the 6ft ditch, eroding the fence. Ditch makes 3 corners in short space, slows water down, so is apt to overflow there when we have large rainfalls. Clean bottom of my ditch allows draining water to just fly into the big tube, drain away. Nothing to catch leaves, make a dam in water flow. Put up a bushel of tomatoes, did half dried, half frozen. I am not a canning person. Too much work for me! I did a lot of canning with my mom as a kid. We canned and froze everything we could. Better food, cheaper to feed 4 growing kids all winter. We all went to pick or get whatever we were fixing, helped prepare it, peeling, seeding, whatever. I think I just did too many jars then. The dried tomatoes take a bit longer, but make good snacks, kids like them in lunches. I experimented with some extra herbs from the garden, really added some nice flavor. DD made some of the trays, flavors will be a surprise to all! Also did a bushel of peppers into the freezer. They go pretty fast. Cut in half, remove seeds and wash. Then I quartered them and ran the pieces thru the food processor slicer. Kind of julianned them, small pieces but not bits. Bagged them and froze. We add the frozen pieces to food we are cooking, good color and flavor. I had a bag sealer to use, didn't work too well. Seals on the bags were erratic. I will be returning it and getting the better brand. Should have listened to my mom, she told me cheap one wouldn't work. She likes her sealer a lot. Have been getting really good sweet corn at the Farmer's Market. Horses love the husks, we do limit their quantity to eat. Our market is getting some very odd food, fun to experiment with new stuff. Eggplant in every color EXCEPT purple. The long purple striped, white eggplants are very good. Also round white ones. Black tomatoes are the BEST for eating out of your hand! She said they are a heritage plant, Black Russians. She had a bunch of funny looking ones, every one was delicious. Cantaloupe are coming in, I use them for desert, with a scoop of ice cream. So much good stuff, I take the kids' old red wagon while shopping the market now. Husband is also bringing home garden produce from his customers. Regular tomatoes, cucumbers and zuccini. We are eating very healthy this time of year. Apple and pears are getting ripe in the fencerows, horses slurp them down first thing every day. The old horse is saying winter is coming, starting to get new hair. I plan on giving her a bath if it does get up over 80F this weekend. Cool nights are making it good sleeping, morning is getting later every day. DD is enjoying her riding lessons, showing progress. Her horse is a lot more lively in this cooler weather. He has been off work a month with his EPM treatment. Seems more comfortable. Hope he is cured, though we hear a lot of horses have a relapse, need another course of meds. Foal is growing like a weed, shoulders are about armpit high now, we can lean on him. We are working on him being seperate from mom, want to wean this next month. He is kind of dragging her down, thin for her. He looks very well, almost fat with no grain at all. He is eating hay well, pasture is pretty burned up. Mare is not bred back, which could be from her not being in a gaining condition to get in foal. We will try breeding her again next year, too late this season. With the rainfall I will get a couple days off watering the trees! Our big ones are looking rough, dry edged leaves. Shrubs also needed water, along with the perennials. I only water some, when they look real droopy. Supposed to be tough growers. I do have some new trees going, they also needed drinks, no deep roots. Those aqua cones that fit on pop bottles, do seem to work keeping far out trees going with a steady moisture. I only fill those once a week for the little pines beyond the hose length.

I agree that you should get a soil test kit, and go from there. What part of Ky are you in? Ky has quite a bit of clay soil, but it also depends on where you are. I would think that buying amendments for the soil you have now would be about the same cost as buying the "topsoil" from the builder. If you are near Louisville or Lexington, you can get compost pretty cheap, because of all the horse waste generated at the track/farms. In Lexington, Keeneland used to give away composted muck for free....I don't know if they do anymore, though. My house was literally built on an old dump site....a few loads of "Thoroughbred compost" and now I have wonderful soil.

Great news---woo hoo! DD went to OSU---loved, loved, loved it. It's a huge school but doesn't feel like it. And they were great when their off-campus house had a fire---really helped the girls find housing in short order. I can't say enough good things about OSU. And of course, since he is into football, the Buckeye fans are hard to beat! DD graduated in 2008 with a degree in Health Information Mgmt. She interned at the OSU Med Center junior/senior year. She moved back home and worked at NIH for 9 months, then got offered a job back at the Med Center. She worked there for 4 years and basically got her MHA for free. She is now working as a consultant for a small company, still living in Columbus. She's pretty happy there still, but it's becoming a little more difficult socially as her friends marry and/or move away. She has a better standard of living there--can afford her own nice apartment....she'd have to have roomates if she lived here(DC area) so she's torn about moving back. DS got into Indiana but not the special program he wanted so went elsewhere. I think it would have been his first choice....another great school and campus/college town. Can't wait to see where your son lands....it's an exciting time!

Wow, you guys are a wealth of info on this! Thank you so much. I do remember now that last time we saw the horses up close, just by chance as we left. This time we will arrive early for that. I will still get seats as well, so we have a spot. We will probably dress up a bit. I recall last time DD wore a straw hat with a scarf, channelling her inner 1950's starlet. I think we have one or two around, I will have to smuggle it or she might guess our destination. I noticed today in NYC they sell them on streetcorners, the way they sell scarves in winter. As for dining, a lot of places are already booked so it's good to have suggestions, thx Jojoco. Beagles, We are staying at a place called the Brentwood right at the track, not the GP. Is it the GP that does the tours are the park itself, do you recall? As far as betting, I think ignorance is bliss. Last time my DD won big. She insisted on betting on a long shot "to win" even though I tried to explain odds and payouts, etc. Two more heavily favored horses dropped out and hers, (get this) "Shopaholic," won! Zalco, Maybe a fascinator, LOL? One of my DDs bought an enormous floppy hat when we were on vacation a few years ago, really comically large. She kept finding screenshots from Vogue and such to prove to us this was "in." Wonder where that hat is. We'd have to tie it to the roofrack.